Son of Man

[CWH]

Why did Jesus called Himself the Son of Man? Why didn't He called Himself the Son of God which is more appropriate? I understand that the "Son of Man" is analogous to titles that people give to respectable and learned men such as His Majesty, Your Highness, King, Emperor, Doctor, Professor etc. Perhaps it is more humble to call Himself the Son of man rather than the Son of God....or perhaps it makes more sense to call Himself the Son of Man rather than the Son of God as He Himself is God and He came from a human virgin i.e. Mary.

Some people believe that when Jesus call Himself the Son of Man, He was referring to future events when He came back as the Son of Man as in Matthew 24.... or are there other distinctions beside just a title?

Any takers?

30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the ends of the earth.......... 36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Many Blessings.

[joel]

As "Son of Man" (huios anthropos) He was manifested once as he came to end the tyranny of sin and death which He accomplished by the sacrifice of Himself. To bring to a conclusion the old humanity.

It is appointed unto man to die once........and then the judging (Heb. 9:27).

He died for all when He died.....in that sense, He represented all of humanity as "Son of Man".

He will be seen a second time, apart from sin, as the Judge to render justice to all.........to those who have seen Him as He appeared in His first coming, to take away sin, and to compensate them for acts accomplished in the body, and, to those who have not seen Him as He appeared in His first coming, to administer the justice according to their deeds.

His second appearing is also as the Son of Man but in the capacity of the new humanity of which He is first.

As "Son of God" He will share the aionian inheritance with His brethren as sons of God.

Joel

[CWH]

As "Son of Man" (huios anthropos) He was manifested once as he came to end the tyranny of sin and death which He accomplished by the sacrifice of Himself. To bring to a conclusion the old humanity.

It is appointed unto man to die once........and then the judging (Heb. 9:27).

He died for all when He died.....in that sense, He represented all of humanity as "Son of Man".

He will be seen a second time, apart from sin, as the Judge to render justice to all.........to those who have seen Him as He appeared in His first coming, to take away sin, and to compensate them for acts accomplished in the body, and, to those who have not seen Him as He appeared in His first coming, to administer the justice according to their deeds.

His second appearing is also as the Son of Man but in the capacity of the new humanity of which He is first.

As "Son of God" He will share the aionian inheritance with His brethren as sons of God.

Joel

Excellent explanation Joel :thumb: and thanks for your insight.

From my study, I realized that the word "Son of God" first appeared after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in which God called Jesus His Son, and the first appearance of the word, "Son of Man" always occurs after the baptism of Jesus. It occurs to me that it was a title which God gave to Jesus as His Son, and in which Jesus proclaimed after his baptism as the Son of Man. In other words, the Son of God is synonymous with the Son of Man, I am not sure of its significance here:

Son of God:
Matthew 4:16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

32Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 34I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.
35The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

This was also the first time that Jesus was called the "Lamb of God".

Son of Man:
Matthew 8:20
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

Mark 2:10
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic,

Luke 5:24
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."

John 1:51
He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."


An insight thus occurs to me that Jesus was first called:

Son of God....Lamb of God....Son of Man indicating that first, God sent His Son to preach the Good News for salvation and then He was sacrifice like a lamb for the forgiveness of Sin and then he would come back to judge the world and save all those who believe in Him.

Many Blessings.

[CWH]

There are some articles suggesting that the title of Son of Man means a simple humble human being or a cover-up to mean the Messiah or meaning the Son of Humanity. I believe the use of the "Son of Man" also has a prophetic future meaning e.g. the coming of the Son of Man.

http://www.gospel-mysteries.net/son-of-man.html

The Son of Man

In the gospels Jesus often refers to himself as the "Son of Man". The term appears in all four gospels, and is used more than 70 times. The way it is used suggests that it was a title. But if so, what did it mean?
Linguistically, in the Aramaic of that period, the term "son of man" simply meant "an ordinary man" or "an ordinary human being". But many scholars think that it also had a specific prophetic meaning. They point to a passage in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (7:13-14), which reads:
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
In this passage Daniel seems to be using "son of man" as a name for the Messiah. According to the old Jewish prophesies, the Messiah was a great future leader who would overthrow all evil rulers and set up an eternal Kingdom of God. During the period when Jesus was growing up, many people were expecting this Messiah to appear within a short time.
But there were different ideas about how the Messiah would accomplish his goals. Many common people thought of him as a military leader who would drive the Romans out of the country. But the scriptures sometimes depicted him as a devout holy figure who would use non-violent methods and God's assistance to achieve his ends.
Many scholars believe that Jesus used "Son of Man" in the same way as the Book of Daniel did, as an alternate name for the Messiah. Jesus even used the same imagery as Daniel in several of his own statements, such as when he says (Mark 13:26) "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory."
But why would Jesus use a substitute name for the Messiah? One possibility is that he realized that he might be arrested if he openly called himself the Messiah, and so he used Son of Man as a secret "code name". Most likely the authorities knew about the Messiah, and were ready to arrest anyone who claimed that title. But they may not have known what Son of Man meant.
Another possibility is that Son of Man was a specific name for the non-violent type of Messiah, and Jesus wanted to make it clear that he didn't intend to start a revolt. In his view the main role of the Messiah was to provide an atonement for everyone's sins so as to bring about a reconciliation between humankind and God.
Some scholars think that "Son of Man" is a misleading translation of the original Aramaic, and that a better translation would be "Son of Humanity". This could be interpreted to mean that Jesus represented the whole human race. Another possible translation, found in some bibles, is "Son of Adam". But however the term is translated, it was probably an alternate name for the Messiah.

Many Blessings.

[LTDahn]

Why did Jesus called Himself the Son of Man? Why didn't He called Himself the Son of God which is more appropriate? I understand that the "Son of Man" is analogous to titles that people give to respectable and learned men such as His Majesty, Your Highness, King, Emperor, Doctor, Professor etc. Perhaps it is more humble to call Himself the Son of man rather than the Son of God....or perhaps it makes more sense to call Himself the Son of Man rather than the Son of God as He Himself is God and He came from a human virgin i.e. Mary.

Some people believe that when Jesus call Himself the Son of Man, He was referring to future events when He came back as the Son of Man as in Matthew 24.... or are there other distinctions beside just a title?

Any takers?

30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the ends of the earth.......... 36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Many Blessings.

CWH,

Jesus called himself the Son of Man intentionally to draw attention to Daniel 7 and various passages in Ezekiel. In Dan7, we read that "one like the SOM" ascends "to the Ancient of Days" to receive "kingdom, power, glory," etc. If you examine the SOM passages in the Gospels, you'll find that these elements are in view. Thus, by giving himself this title, Jesus is associating himself with those elements and figures of the great past - elements which spelled hope and deliverance. It is eschatological in nature. Essentially, Jesus is saying, "Deliverance is coming, just as it was said of old."

LTD

[gilgal]

CWH,

Jesus called himself the Son of Man intentionally to draw attention to Daniel 7 and various passages in Ezekiel. In Dan7, we read that "one like the SOM" ascends "to the Ancient of Days" to receive "kingdom, power, glory," etc. If you examine the SOM passages in the Gospels, you'll find that these elements are in view. Thus, by giving himself this title, Jesus is associating himself with those elements and figures of the great past - elements which spelled hope and deliverance. It is eschatological in nature. Essentially, Jesus is saying, "Deliverance is coming, just as it was said of old."

LTD
What do you see in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21? Have they been fulfilled or yet to fulfill or both?